Iraq's Allawi Steps Up Challenge to Al-Maliki as He Tries to Lure Deputies

By Caroline Alexander -
Oct 14, 2010

Former Iraqi premier Ayad Allawi’s
Iraqiyah bloc stepped up efforts to lure deputies from Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s alliance, in a bid to form the largest
group of seats in parliament and secure the right to form a new
government, almost eight months after elections.

Iraqiyah is negotiating with the Shiite Muslim Islamic
Supreme Council of Iraq, the Fadheela Party, the Kurdistan
Parties Coalition and the Sunni Muslim Iraqi Unity Bloc,
Allawi’s spokeswoman, Maysoon al-Damluji, said late yesterday.
Talks “have reached advanced stages and their outcome will be
announced at the appropriate time,” she said.

Allawi, a Shiite who won support from secular and Sunni
voters in the March elections, has won the backing of 130
members of the 325-seat assembly, compared with 132 for al-
Maliki’s Shiite-led State of Law group, al-Sumaria television
reported. Iraqiyah nominated Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, an
ISCI member, as its premiership candidate.

The power struggle between the two blocs has delayed the
formation of a government, with neither able to command a
parliamentary majority. The vacuum coincided with a surge in
violence, prompting regional leaders including Turkish premier
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to join the U.S. in calling for the rapid
creation of an administration able to unify the country.

State of Law’s merger with other Shiite groups to form the
National Alliance in June was a setback to Allawi’s efforts to
create a bloc larger than al-Maliki’s. The alliance this month
nominated al-Maliki as its candidate for the premiership over
objections of some of its lawmakers from groups such as ISCI.

Discussions With Kurds

The Kurdistan Parties Coalition, which includes President
Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Change
Party, holds about 53 seats in the assembly. Its members have
said they are in talks with both Allawi and al-Maliki.

“Right now, Maliki and Allawi are battling for Kurdish
support,” said Reidar Visser, an Iraq analyst at the Oslo-based
Norwegian Institute for International Affairs. “Whoever gets it
should be in a position to form a government reasonably fast.”

Al-Damluji didn’t specify the number of lawmakers who are
backing Allawi in her statement yesterday, and she wasn’t
immediately available for comment when contacted by telephone
today.

“There is no time limit, except that there will be new
elections in 2015,” Visser said, referring to the formation of
the next government. “In the case of a protracted stalemate,
the new parliament could choose a speaker and work with the
existing government, or dissolve itself in order to have fresh
elections.”